Water Cups Fountain by Ariane Prin

Designer Ariane Prin graduated in 2011 at the Royal College of Art of London has built a manually operated device to create unique cups. As the user rotates the artifact, the liquid clay drips drips into the molds and creates the porcelain cups with a different pattern showing each splash.

“Project created during my residency at DCK (Design Centrum Kielce, Poland). A machine to produce dripped porcelain cups. Four large porcelain vessels slowly shed a recipe based of clay over 16 plaster molds rotating underneath, creating unique random patterns on the cups.

The inspiration for this work came from the spontaneous gathering of citizen around numerous city fountains and joyful interaction with water that I observed during summer time.

It also came from the history of the building where is located the institution, an old prison (1828) who was up till 1956 a silent whiteness of torture of many Polish freedom fighters. This is why the collection of cups I made for DCK are red, they symbolise the blood of these victims who were tortured by water before being killed in front of the wall of executions, place where I first used the machine.

This project is also another attempt in my research to create the machines which achieve the objects. The clay recipe elaborated for the cups needs only one firing, reducing by half the consumption of power usually used in ceramic”

For this project we did a brief interview to the designer Ariane Prin:

What is the design for you?

I have a global vision of product design, I do not put a veil on the multiples facet’s that a project can contain but I try to challenge them: meaning, material, process of making, use, users, communication… Some people might think that this process creates heavy projects at the end but this is my way to justify the existence of the products that I make. I answer all these points at my scale with the tools I have around me, but I try to keep in mind the potentiality of the project for mass manufacturing.

I do not consider myself as a stylist, but a creative thinker who loves resolving problems. I am not counting on making something beautiful; I am driven by something which makes sense for me and it’s just a plus if people like the end products, as beauty is such a subjective concept.

I generally start working for a specific location, analyse its culture, its history and the needs of the people who work and leave there. This is the way I establish my brief. In this case residencies programs are for me great opportunities to travel, meet people, immerse myself in an unknown culture, learn or improve my technical skills, work intensively in a limited amount of time in order to come up with a new project, it’s very rewarding!

What do you think of the new movement where the designer creates their own machines to manufacture its products? Whether experienced as self-production.

It’s a strange feeling to read that you consider me as part of a movement because as creative we always fight for our individuality. I can’t ignore that I am not the only designer who makes machines, even if I think in my case “machine” is perhaps too pretentious as mine are really “beta style”. I am not making them to be recognized as part of a group. It just makes sense for me today to work this way and it might change in the future.

To answer this question I would say that I am not only creating “machines”, but also the system which allows anyone to use them, as well as the material to be used because more accurate for both the machine and the end products – refer to the pencil recipe – see From Here For Here #1.